The Final Name
What is Hartley’s side of the story?
Episode 8 of The Terminal List begins with Katie agreeing to do the interview with Hartley. She’s taken up to the Secretary’s house, where Hartley reveals that everything. Apparently, they’re being led to the wrong conclusions.
According to Hartley, she did greenlight the RD4895 project but didn’t benefit from the cover-up thereafter. She also tells Katie she didn’t do it for profit either.
Apparently she tested RD4895 to because she wanted to try and solve the trauma. She was being sent regular medical reports from Admiral Pillar but he’d fudged those to hoodwink her into believing the drug was working, when it very clearly wasn’t.
When Hartley heard Katie ranting at Steve Horn on TV, that’s when she knew there was more to this story than meets the eye and decided to look into this in more detail.
Hartley conducted her own investigation into the events that went down in Syria. Apparently she was just as upset over what happened as Reece.
Does Katie believe Secretary Hartley?
After telling her story, she lets Katie go and encourages her to do what she will with the information given. Is Hartley telling the truth Or is she lying to save face? That’s something Katie needs to try and determine. And determine she does.
When questioning Lorraine that night, Katie does change her story to accommodate Hartley’s story but still has doubts over the timeline of events.
Now, it would seem that Lorraine Hartley’s actual story deviates from what she earlier told Katie, in that she started taking action against Steve Horn and the others before the confrontation in the street. Katie talks Hartley into a corner, with her aware of the issues with RD-4895 and how Hartey saved face by letting Reece’s men die in combat.
Does James get his revenge on Secretary Hartley?
Meanwhile, Ben and James head out but end up stuck at a routine check on the highway. James hides out in the back and it’s touch and go for a while but they thankfully manage to come out of this unscathed. They don’t find James and it doesn’t turn into a bloodbath. Well, not yet anyway.
After Katie learns the truth about Hartley’s story, Ben and James storm the compound all guns blazing. James is blinded by rage and heads straight into Hartley’s safe-room. Katie tries to calm him down, pointing out she has audio evidence of Hartley’s deception.
How does Hartley die? Is James Reece captured?
While they talk, Secretary Hartley grabs a handgun she has stashed on the table and scoops it up. Just to solidify her guilt in all this, she shoots herself in the head to avoid the shame of being dragged through the mud.
As for James Reece, he’s been badly wounded from the earlier fighting and stumbles outside. Bleeding out, he’s approached by a soldier but the guy thinks twice about shooting, letting Reece go instead.
How does The Terminal List end?
Three weeks later, Katie’s story spreads and it brings about real reform in the Pentagon. Not only that but Reece is still alive, with Katie (and the rest of the world) still trying to hunt him down.
James Reece is actually off in Peru, having earlier tracked Ben Edwards down. Remember that final name on the list? It’s Ben. He’s the one who fed the bad intel.
Ben does reveal that he had nothing to do with James’ family being killed and wanted to take them out just as much as he did. Still, Ben is the final name on the list so James decides to finish the job, shooting his brother in cold blood.
The Episode Review
So The Terminal List bows out with a conclusive final chapter, wrapping everything up with a neat little bow and clearing out all the names on the kill list. This has been a long, drawn out series that could easily have been condensed down to around 4 or 5 hours or so.
The recurring flashback involving James and his family, with that fallen bird, has been overplayed and the names on the list ultimately lead to one final kill in Ben, which is a nice twist in the tale to be fair.
However, there’s been a lot of unnecessary filler in this, with some of these episodes losing their intensity and drama because of the run-time.
Did we really need a full 55 minutes of James on the run in the woods? That could easily have been knocked down to around 30 minutes and made much punchier. Likewise, everything involving the board meetings and the Cap Tables, as well as the Steve Horn and Saul drama, could have been squeezed together with tighter editing as it felt like they were the main players rather than just another cog in the machine.
The show has also struggled with originality on top of all this too and ultimately, while the ending does conclude everything nicely, it hasn’t been a particularly memorable journey to this point, especially when you compare it to shows like Reacher.
Either way though, we at least get a conclusion to this story and not a baited cliffhanger ending so that is at least a bonus!
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You can read our full season review for The Terminal List Season 1 here! |
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Episode Rating
(3)
Season 2 please! Plenty to keep us interested and enough back story to understand and feel the pain and suffering then urgency to seek justice and validation. Well done Chris Pratt, Well done.
Love this series beginning setting Expectations high for the rest of the series!
Step by step with Reese knowing his pain, loyalty, values and integrity never letting up until he reaches the truth by any measure made his revenge so justifiable!
Of course this left leaning site can’t see the draw!
Love It. Great series 2022
Not sure why there are so many negative comments about the reviews. This show was not very good. The plot is great and I’m sure the books are great (I haven’t read them, however I’d assume it must be better) but this tv series was poorly executed. I totally agree that this should’ve been edited down as it ran on for way too long. The acting was WAY over the top (for the most part), the dialogue seemed to be written by a 12 year old, and if you have watched enough tv/movies then you’d know how overused and unoriginal the plot line actually is.
I will admit, Taylor Kitsch was pretty good. But Chris Pratt… well… just watch the pilot episode and watch his facial expressions when he is “stunned” or about to pass out… or even when he is trying to be “serious”. It’s borderline hilarious. But I digress…
Anyways. There’s a reason this show has a 39% on rotten tomatoes from critics, but a 95% viewer rating. If you don’t actually enjoy good dialogue or acting, but want to watch some decent action scenes (albeit they were pretty accurate from a spec ops POV)… and you have never seen any government conspiracy action flick so the “twists” are shocking… then this is for you. But if you laughed as hard as I did when seeing Pratt’s “vinegar stroke face” whenever he tries to be serious, don’t waste your time and just read some recaps since the plot is decent when condensed.
The reviewer definitely has a biased agenda & is not in touch with what people want out of entertainment. We watched this series in a group & everyone loved it!! The story was original & kept all of us guessing & on the edge of our seats. Go watch it. You won’t be disappointed.
This was hands down much much better than Reacher in every way. Cinematography, acting, writing were superb. There was great balance between action and emotion, character and plot development. The reviewer wants only a quick shoot ‘em up type series. This was rare in its authenticity and believability. I cannot wait for season 2. Pratt was hands down better than Cruise was in Reacher.
My husband and I loved this series. Chris Pratt did an amazing job. According to the reviewer above, he wants to take just about everything out of the series. Good job showing how corrupt the government can be.
The review above is probably not positive because it is written by a leftist Democrat who is anti-Chris Pratt (who sticks to his guns and doesn’t follow the usual celebrity political views).
LOVED this show, so much so I’m now going to read the books. There hasn’t been a show where i was fingers crossed hoping the main character gets justice then have tears run down my checks within minutes.
The acting was superb, the cinematography was excellent, the cast were brilliant in there believable character, each member of the list had a believable reason to be initially considered as a main character at least by my lowly standards.
I think the reason an episode was devoted to Reece surviving the forest was to demonstrate that he won’t take a life just because he can which was also evident when he pulled another from the self made landslide.
I really really hope and pray #AmazonPrime start filming the next 4 books soon.🤞
One of the BEST action, and suspense filled shows I’ve watch in a very long time.
Seems like the reviewer is more in to mindless Wham Baam Thank You Ma’am kinda action series than one with back stories, losses, tragedies, betrayls like the ones we face in real life!
Wow!! So I guess this reviewer doesn’t like plot twists or backstory. Why not just condense it down to 30 minutes- have Reece’s family killed, then he guns down the bad guys one at time or all at once, just to save time? Come on! It was great and I enjoyed it thoroughly. But then, who am I but a lowly peon, unsophisticated and too gullible to such drivel.
I enjoyed this show.I binged it all in one day. I don’t know who this reviewer is. The acting, action,directing, and storyline were GREAT.I hope there is a season 2.
My wife and I are movie buffs and this series was a very well written, directed work of art. This series had so many plot twists and was beautifully acted. Chris Pratt did an amazing job assembling the very talented group of actors and it showed in the final product. Cant wait for the next season. Fingers crossed!
L review was quite an amazing show every part mattered very well written
We loved everything about this show. Don’t know why the review above was not positive. And to compare this to the Amazon Reacher movie, no comparison. This one was MUCH better. We are hoping for season 2.